Magic Springs Drive. Also includes APN #810-03-004 for total of 4.36 acres. Beautiful and private creekside retreat among the giant redwoods and ferns. Over 20k put into bridge, foundation and engineered plans. No permits. Underground phone line and community spring fed water. Perfect for recreational getaway.

With all the recent chatter about “value in land only”, I thought this might make for an interesting, if not cautionary, tale.

This 4+acre property is nestled deep within a magical forest west of Gilroy. Since it has no street address, Redfin can’t map it, but the Santa Clara County GIS can (via APN 810-03-022).

The property last sold for $800K during the peak of the bubble years. Apparently, the seller planned to build a dream house there, investing over $20K towards improvements, but then gave up (the ogre/county wouldn’t permit it?).

With hopes dashed, the seller resigned to sell the property, but seemed conflicted on asking price (at one point asking twice what was paid for it). Currently, the seller has settled on a less fanciful price of $100K.

It just goes to show that RBA dreaming can only be truly realized in the RBA.

I think the listing history is weird because they’re all coming up as “0 LAND ONLY”, but if you look at the links in the listing history, a lot of them are for different APN’s. (The 800k sale was APN 841-44-033 which looks like a big plot of farmland on the other side of Gilroy)

If I had a spare 99,999.99(9) sitting around I might be interested in that property, it is a beautiful area. Back before child/crushing mortgage payment, my wife and I used to hike at the Uvas Canyon County Park, which looks like it is a short-ish drive from there, right behind the weird Swedish expat community of Sveadal. (Basically a row of 10-12 houses along a mountain road that all have Volvos parked outside).

Take a good look at the photo at right of the listing details. I think this listing may have earned a DHO tag. But the dude isn’t hanging out. He appears to be driving a Bobcat. DBO? Somebody please confirm it because I’ve misread too many pictures.

In regards to the “0 Land Only” issue in #2, I’m not about that APN 841-44-033, but if you click on the MLS# 81222109 link at the top of the Redfin listing, there is a $1.6M “0 Land Only” listing, which is active at $1.6M, even though it shows the $100k price change in its history.

If one thinks that $100k for today’s featured land only property with foundation is outstanding, consider buying that $1.6M property that is currently rented for $15,400 per year. Yes, that’s right, a YIELD OF UNDER 1%! Yes, you read that right, a purchase price to annual rent multiplier over 100!

Okay, I’ll add the DHO tag for the dude in the Bobcat. Yes, Redfin has completely changed their layout. I like the big pictures but it’s going to be a lot harder to get the important info into one screenshot.

Guess they can’t list this place as 0 Magic Springs Drive if they haven’t built the road yet?

By my simple “move the decimal point” calculation, $100k means $1000 a month. If you can throw an RV on it, it’s probably worth it.

And mosquitos, hell, we’re far from a river so we breed ’em here!

OK rant time:

I’ve lived on this 5-acre place for almost 4 years now. I swallowed the survivalist kool-ade and really thought that by 2012 things might look like the scenes in those horribly-written “doomer” novels. Instead, nope! No zombies, no guard duty, money’s still working, people are still driving, etc. My biggest danger is the weirdness right around here. The owner of the place is bringing all these new people in, and they don’t do anything, just hang around and drink beer, and I’m a jerk as far as they’re concerned because I insist on doing the chores. The land owner’s gone half the year because I take care of things, and it’s just a hell of a lot of work for free rent in a place most people would have to be paid to live in.

So I’m leaving, for what Surfer-X called San Hosebag. Well, San Hosebag is *heaven* compared to this place. Being able to be out after dusk, being able to trade in electronic surplus instead of just farm-type work, being able to escape the heat, flies, and misery, San Hosebag here I come!

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